refusvsReisTell them apart

Which to use

“refus” and “Reis” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#3,164
“refus” frequency rank
#49,902
“Reis” frequency rank
53066
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature refus Reis
Definition Action de ne pas accorder ce qui est demandé. Riz.

Where the eye mixes refus and Reis

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. refus runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against Reis's 4 (CVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
refus
4 ch
Reis

Look-alike desk: refus vs Reis

A purely visual mix-up. refus (\ʁə.fy\) and Reis (\raɪ̯s\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 53066, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

refus is recorded at frequency rank #3,164, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʁə.fy\. Reis is at rank #49,902, tagged as anoun, pronounced \raɪ̯s\.

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 53066, this pair ranks #143,331 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of refus vs Reis

Shared letters: ers. Private to "refus": fu. Private to "Reis": i.

"refus" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "Reis" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • refus ← erfus · reffus · refsu · refuss · reufs · rfeus · rrefus
  • Reis ← eris · reiss · resi · rreis

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "refus" and "Reis" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ʁə.fy\ versus \raɪ̯s\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "refus" or "Reis"?
"refus" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,164 in our French list, against #49,902 for "Reis". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "refus" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Reis" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #143,331 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "refus" and "Reis" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Reis vs Rhys". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #143,331 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list